Yellow Wallpaper Bias Against Women Essay

Bias against Women in the Nineteenth Century The short story “Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is about a woman who is on rest cure and eventually goes mad (Gilman 537). Gilman used her own personal experiences with the rest cure as a basis for her story. She used literary devices such as symbols to depict her experiences with the rest cure. In the nineteenth century, the rest cure was prescribed to mainly female patients to treat hysteria. The medicinal practices of this time reflect a bias against women. Because of this bias, women were not well represented in healthcare at that time. Many of women’s mental disorders were diagnosed as hysteria and were believed to be directly linked to their reproductive organs (Stiles). One medicinal method in particular, the rest cure, clearly

For her depression she was prescribed the rest cure. It was Gilman’s experience with the rest cure that inspired her to write her short story “Yellow Wallpaper” about a woman that undergoes the rest cure and eventually goes mad (537). This was an effort to reach out to Mitchel and others to warn them about the rest cure and how it could be harmful (Stiles). Gilman believed that the rest cure actually made her depression worsen and almost made her lose her sanity (Stiles). So extreme was her depression that she says, ‘I would sit blankly and move my head from side to side’ (Stiles). It is possible that she felt imprisoned by the expectations of a wife and mother. Women during this time were expected to be domestic and only make their husband and children happy while their happiness was often forgotten. They were discouraged from pursuing a higher education or entering into the workforce. Gilman objected to the rest cure and thought that writing would help her (Stiles). She eventually decided to do what she believed would help her and began to write